“If thought corrupts language, language can also corrupt thought. Political language is designed to make lies sound truthful, and murder respectable, and to give an appearance of solidity to pure wind.” — George Orwell

The United States of America and Iran have agreed on a purported 14-point Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) to end the Middle East war on all fronts, open the Strait of Hormuz for marine traffic without any toll, lift the blockade of Iranian seaports, and release $12 billion of its frozen assets, making the atmosphere congenial for 60-day technical talks to resolve the more contentious issues. The MoU, couched in convoluted and ambiguous diplomatic and political language liable to interpretation by each party to claim victory in the 100-day war, presents, prima facie, a win-win situation.

However, the devil lies in the details of the complex bilateral issues causing geopolitical tensions in the region. The war claimed more than 7,000 lives, and enormous infrastructural destruction, mostly borne by Iran. The Israeli attacks in southern Lebanon have displaced 1.2 million people and killed over 3,500 citizens. The decades-long hostility, mutual distrust and conflict would seriously overshadow the 60-day technical talks unless Iran makes big compromises to address the geopolitical concerns of the USA and Israel in the region.

Therefore, the most significant question that comes to mind while thinking about the impending MoU, scheduled to be signed on June 19, 2026, in Geneva, is whether this deal will usher in a pleasant era of rapprochement between the USA and Iran, overcoming the mutual distrust and the........

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